President opened the meeting 1620LT and thanked everybody for attending. Round the table introductions were made.

Minutes of Previous Meeting
The Minutes of the Board Meeting held in Konstanz were approved. Proposed David Porter, seconded James Ford.

Financial Update
VP Finance advised that a final account balance is not yet available due to monies from the Konstanz AGM not having been received.  As at end July 2001 the account balance stood at $21,275.86.  He advised that credit card payment via the web site is still being sought.  It was thought that approx $1100 is to come from ADF and $1900 from EUFALDA, but this is still under discussion with ADF. 

It was announced that the Preston Group are interested in becoming joint sponsors depending on the success of their presentation at the next ADF symposium in October. They are possible vendors for the Toronto summit.  This company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing – AOC/ATM data etc.

Update of ICAO Annexe 6
David Porter gave a presentation on the proposed changes/updates to ICAO Annexe 6, explaining that revision should be undertaken for a number of reasons, with particular attention to modification of Chapters 4-6.  A powerpoint presentation outlined the main suggested changes with the general theme being to make the requirements specific to a job function rather than a title since so many different job titles exist. Discussion from the floor was invited on the proposed changes with the following comments forthcoming:

Slide 10 The word "briefing" should be inserted.
Slide 12 Amend to "Flight Dispatcher/Flight Operations Officer Training Course".

With the above amendments incorporated, there was strong support from the Board for going ahead with the amendment of ICAO Annexe 6.

IATA Operational Safety Audit Task Force - IOSA
This group is chaired by Randy Rohan of Delta. Gerald Clifford gave a brief explanation of the purpose of this task force – to identify opportunities to rationalize standards, their being particular relevance to code share agreements. The deadline is 8 January 2002. The rationale behind this work is that foreign carriers have been subjected to multiple audits unnecessarily.

There should be one audit to a common standard and although this is separate from ICAO, reference to the ICAO documentation is also being made. Again, focus should be on the job function rather than the title for the same reasons as discussed in connection with the ICAO Annexe 6 project.

Gerald Clifford is currently working on this project with Alan Rossmore and a request was made for more members from outside USA, especially Europe. IFALDA is going to sponsor two members. David Porter suggested contacting KLM who, it is understood, are interested in becoming involved with IFALDA once again and are reported to be transferring to FAR121 as a dispatch standard. VP West said that Paul Mason of Air Canada was prepared to join this Task Force.

VP West mentioned two ICAO groups which may be of interest to IFALDA:
1) ETOPS
2) All Weather Operations Group

Involvement in either of these may be possible either through ITF or other recommendation.

Revision of Flight Dispatch Training Manual
David Porter showed a powerpoint presentation on some proposed changes to the Training Manual, prepared as a result of a meeting between himself and Gerald Clifford. It was decided that as four years had elapsed since this manual had been rewritten by IFALDA, it should be brought up to date. Once again, the main theme should reflect job function rather than title. Changes recommended include:

Dangerous Goods – change to reflect that information should be made available to the dispatcher as well as on the load sheet.

We should try and get rid of the word "mass" which is meaningless, and

Substitute with "weight".

Navigation Section - various additions suggested to bring the document up to date with current technology.
Action items – Kathy Warner agreed to take on Air Traffic Management issues.

The remainder currently rest with Gerald Clifford and David Porter. Helge Hafstad of Norway will be asked if he is prepared to take on any items and it was made known that any further volunteers would be very welcome.

Forthcoming Meetings
European Flight Data Conference             Portuguese representation expected
Human Factors – Toulouse                       Possibly attended by Jerry Elder representing ADF.
ICAO / Nav Canada in Banff               Gary Edwards from Delta
ADF Symposium Washington Oct 7-9     ADF/IFALDA members invited to attend
EUFALDA Meeting ATH Oct 7-9      VP Finance attending plus possibly Gerald Clifford
JAA/FAA HWG November                        Brad Rasmussen will attend

ADF
Due to lack of volunteers to take over the Presidency, there were fears that ADF might have to close down but it is thought that a back up plan is in place to prevent this.

Compensation for Shift Coverage
The question was raised as to the policy regarding payment of compensation to individuals who incur personal costs as a result of having to arrange shift cover in order to attend meetings. Although it was felt that the policy should be to compensate for all such occasions, David Porter advised caution as this could lead to high expenditure. It was therefore suggested that a maximum limit should be imposed for this type of compensation of, say $200 per day and this policy suggestion should be put before the membership. For the time being a one off case for Brad Rasmussen will be considered if necessary.

Latin America
Director Latin America gave an update on the Latin American situation and advised that the local website is currently being rebuilt using a different web provider.  Currently there is no activity in South America and Raul Aguirre agreed to remain the point of contact for this region.  It was felt that the forthcoming summit in Toronto could provide an opportunity to establish contact with Cuban dispatchers and maybe others.

European Union
Kathy Warner agreed to contact Mr Jongen regarding the report submitted earlier this year by Charles Reynolds.
Jan Hoehne has sent out questionnaires but has had no responses as yet.

Toronto Summit – May 6-8 2002
Basic plans for this event were outlined and a proposed program circulated to attendees. The chosen hotel is the Toronto Marriott

Regarding speakers, it was suggested that President IFALDA write to the Canadian Minister of Transport inviting him to be a key speaker. It was also suggested that a representative from ICAO/IATA be asked. This should be done as soon as possible.

Tracie Benson of ADF and VP Finance will also be involved in arrangements and costs are likely to be a little higher than Konstanz but no estimates available yet.

Suggestions for the Gala Dinner are being considered but the venue has not yet been decided, possibly down town Toronto.

President agreed to put together a basic program for publication on the web site.

Next Board Meeting
Late November/early December, date to be agreed, London.

Meeting adjourned at 1845LT.